Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Our Southern-themed dinner! I was really excited to see everyone last Sunday night for dinner and gab. Let's start with K.'s part of the meal. Her sweet potato casserole was awesome. I must have the recipe so I can sit on the couch and eat the entire dish alone. The casserole had sweet potatoes, evaporated milk, sugar, egg, and marshmallows (K.? Am I missing anything?). I'd have to say that it's the most fabulous combination ever.

Here's her yummy cornbread. I liked how it was more moist than the typical crumbly cornbread.

D.M. took charge of the frying. He wanted to stay for Girls' Night, so he did the fried stuff. The chicken was a repeat of Ina Garten's recipe, only we did buttermilk overnight instead of a brined buttermilk for a few hours.

D.H. brought frozen okra, so K. sliced it and D.M. fried it up. Quite yummy. I've never had okra before. It's dredged in cornmeal, salt, and pepper. The okra itself is pretty sticky, so no extra wet ingredients are needed to make the dredging stick.

J. brought corn, which was winding down a fabulous summer. She said the farmer's market didn't have much this past weekend and it looks like they're transitioning between the summer produce and fall stuff.

As for me, I had an off day. Nothing turned out quite right. I tried that honey wheat bread that was an Outback copycat. I don't have a bread machine, but that was the only difference I did from the recipe. The bread turned out fine, texture-wise, but it tasted like burnt coffee. Yuck. I was not a fan. I found another recipe with the same ingredients, but different proportions... guess what? Less coffee. Bah.

Collard greens were from Paula Deen. I used my crockpot instead of boiling them in a pot. They were fine, but a tad bland.

I seriously could kick myself for this peach crisp. It's Ina's recipe and the only alteration I made was pretty "fatal". I used canned peaches instead of fresh ones. Canned peaches are already soaked in their own syrup, but I went ahead and macerated them with the sugar. What resulted was a soupy, buttery mess. I also don't think the topping should be made in the mixer. I should have used the food processor instead. The mixer didn't break down the butter enough, so there were big chunks.

I also tried to make lemon martinis, only to create a mixture that should probably be used to clean deep-tissue wounds. Sigh. I really should leave that to G.

Anyway, it was great to see everyone. I hope we can do this again soon. Maybe we should make it a sweet potato casserole party? YUM. Casserole and a handful of forks. Maybe a chocolatey dessert? Kick D.M. out of the house and make it an indulgent girls' night in. Ooooh... perhaps make the next evening marshmallow-themed. S'mores, anyone?